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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 7 Hansard (19 June) . . Page.. 2104 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

some of their young people have returned to or are resorting to petrol sniffing and are using all sorts of other substances as a result of their addiction.

There are a whole range of health problems being suffered by them. The government has responded to the estimates committee report in relation to the standing of Winnunga Nimmityjah and of that organisation's ability to continue in its current premises with its current level of funding. While I understand and acknowledge that there are Commonwealth-ACT issues that need to be dealt with, I do not believe it is acceptable for this community to wash its hands of any of its citizens and claim that it is a Commonwealth responsibility-they are our people; they are our neighbours; they are citizens of the ACT-and that the Commonwealth has an overarching, overriding responsibility that allows us to deflect our responsibilities on to them.

There are a range of other continuing issues, which I am sure my colleagues will comment on.

MR WOOD (9.15): When we talk about budgets these days we spend a great deal of time talking about outputs, and I want to talk about some of the outputs in housing and acknowledge that they are beyond the immediate control of the minister for housing.

Mr Moore: That's really part 10, isn't it?

MR WOOD: It is all right because it flows through, Mr Moore. It flows through from actions that precede your time as minister but that are certainly endorsed by government and supported by me, I might say. I want to express my disappointment at the design of the new Macpherson Court. I do not think that is what it is called; it is called "City Edge" or something, as I see much advertised on television. I only got to see it two or three weeks ago, and I was very disappointed.

One of the main problems we have in planning in this town and one of the causes of the adverse reaction that we get so often from the community is the strange quality of the design of the medium density units that go up. I acknowledge that this goes back to my time as minister and well beyond that. It has a long history in Canberra.

But the ACT government has decided, with some good reasons, that Community Housing Canberra will take on a deal of responsibility for housing and property, including Macpherson Court. It has been handed over to that body to become housing managers-to run a parallel service, if you like, to that of ACT Housing.

In the case of Macpherson Court, it seems to me that the opportunity has not been taken. It is like a lot of other medium density complexes in Canberra that simply do not meet the needs of the time. Architecturally, it could be described as "new brutalism". That is the description of it-a fairly solid-looking structure and severe, strong frontage. Someone has interjected: "Eastern European"; I would not say that. From day one it has made a larger footprint on the site than the construction it replaced.

My chief problem is that it is ideally situated. It has got a very long street frontage facing northwards. One would expect in this day and age, when we put a lot of emphasis on solar efficiency, some attention to be paid to the sun. But given the small windows and the small number of windows, that is simply not the case. There is also no balcony-not

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